William lawrence



(No Model.)

- W. LAWRENCE.

HAT BAND.

No. 488,988. Patented Aug. 12, 1890.

Hw" A wm Q/wzm me UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM LAWRENCE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

HAT-BAND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 433,988, dated August 12, 1890.

Application filed August 5, 1889.

To a/ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM LAWRENCE, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Retaining Hat- Bands; and I do hereby declare the following be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object the production of a self-retaining hat-band adapted to be sold as an article of manufacture, which may be placed in position at any time and will retain its place without stitching or staples, and which will fit various sized hats without change.

With these ends in view, I have devised the simple and novel construction of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, numbers being used to denote the several parts.

Figure l is a side elevation of a hat having my novel self-retainin g hat-band in place, the side of the brim being broken away to show the bow; and Fig. 2 is a perspective of the band detached, showing the inner side of the bow.

It is of course wel-l understood by those familiar with the manufact-ureof hats that the bands and bows are ordinarily made separate in practice, the band being stitched in place upon the hat, the ends not meeting, and the bow being Aafterward stitched in place upon the hat so as to cover the ends of the band. The objection to this class of bands is the great amount of hand-labor required, it be ing necessary to stitch both band and bow in place, thereby making the attachment of the band and bow an essential step in the manufacture of hats.

My present invention makes the placing of bands on hats in manufacturing wholly unnecessary, and leaves the attachment of the band to the retailer, who uses the st-yle of band that may be selected by his customer, the expense being so slight that even small dealers will he able to keep enough of a stock of bands to give ample selection to customers; and, furthermore, should a person at any time injure the band of his hat or become dissatn Serial No. 319,767. (No model.)

isfled with it, he can readily purchase another and put it on himself, there being no question about its fitting and no necessity of stitching it in place.

l denotes the band, and 2 the bow, having a loop 3.

4 denotes a strip of elastic, which is stitched to one end of the band, then passed through the loop of the bow at the back thereof, and then stitched to the other end of the band, as is clearly shown in Fig. 2. The strip of elastic passes loosely through the bow, leaving the latter free to slide thereon, the bow being attached to the band by stitching at one place only, which I have denoted by 5. It willv thus be seen that while the strip of elastic holds the bow in position by passing through the loop thereof, there is nothing to affect the resiliency of the elastic in the slightest. It is furthermore impossible for the bow to slide upon the band, owing to its being retained by stitching 5.

In practice I find that a strip of elastic short enough to be fully covered by the bow will give elasticity enough to the band to permit of its being used upon several different sizes of hats, it simply being required that the ends of the bands should be at all times covered by the bow. It is found in practice that the band readily adapts itself to the shape of the hat, and having been once placed in position stays there permanently without fastening of any kind and without the slightest danger of slipping up at front or back.

Having thus described my invention, l claim- A self-retaining hat-band consisting of a band of non-elastic material and abow of ordinary construction, the bow being provided with the usual loop, and a strap of elastic material passing through the said loop at the back of the said bow, and being connected to the opposite ends of the said band, whereby the latter is adaptedfto different sizes of hats, the said elastic strip and the ends of the said band being at all times covered by the said bow.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM LAWRENCE.

Witnesses:

FRANK W. LEWIS, H. I. MOODY.

IOO 

